village verse

Rough shooting 3

Dad would head shoot mallard
in full flight
bring them down
from the sky at night.
He used a twelve bore
with full pellet spread,
but seldom the body,
mostly the head.
Scarcely a pellet to ruin the meat,
shot for all our family to eat

It was on a big old Fordson Major
that dad took his driving test
after months of patient practise
to pass it or do his level best.
Came the day, he failed.
Poorish eyesight.
Very annoyed
until that very night;
trying to get a brace of geese
with just one shot
but it wasn't geese
that he got.
A pair of swans came crashing down
Dead before they hit the ground.

He laid them for a dog fox to get,
By placing them atop his set.
Shooting swans is against the law,
but what worried dad even more
he mistook them for geese that awful night:
And he could head shoot a mallard in flight.

It was on the same old tractor
Dad took his second test
With his new glasses
He could drive like the best.
After months at long last
he was legal ‘cos he passed.
Dad could head shoot a mallard in full flight
bring them down from the sky at night,
and not the very least
he could once again
tell the swans from the geese.


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Rough shooting 3

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